The Sugar Commissioner’s Office identified 13 sugar factories in Maharashtra that began operating without a valid milling license, and initiated the process of sending notices to the management of those factories.
State sugar factories must apply for a milling license and begin work on or after the start date decided by the government. Mills that start grinding without a license call for action, including a fine of Rs 500 per tonne of cane crushed. From this season, the sugar police station decided to file a criminal complaint against the management of the wandering mills.
Officials from the sugar commissioner’s office said 13 factories were reported, most of which are in Pune district and others in Solapur, Sangli and Satara. In some cases, factories that did not get a license started operations earlier.
This season, Shekhar Gaikwad, the Sugar Commissioner, had made 100% payment of the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) as a prerequisite for the issuance of the grinding license. At the start of the process, 43 factories had unpaid dues, which prevented them from obtaining the license. Gaikwad’s office had issued instructions that the license would not be issued until after the full FRP had cleared it. No less than 195 factories had applied for the license, of which 170 have been issued to date. At least 16 of the 43 mills have paid their contributions.
So far, 131 factories have started operations in the state with 97.71 lakh tonnes of cane crushed and 8.3 lakh tonnes of sugar produced.
